Post Punk Kitchen offered a fun challenge for the weekend. Its a contest called Chopped Vegan. The challenge is to create an main dish in under forty minutes using the mystery ingredients: Blackberries, fresh mint, canned black eyed peas, and bittersweet chocolate. This is what I came up with.



Black eyed pea mole cakes with Quinoa and blackberry mint sauce



For the black eyed pea mole cakes  Bread crumbs 

Drain the black eyed peas and rinse throughly. Add to 3 cups water, one clove minced garlic clove, and salt and pepper to taste. Let cook for five minuets, remove from heat, strain and let cool. Heat one teaspoon of olive oil in skillet , add the shallot, green chili, and poblano, cook for 3 mins and add garlic, turmeric, and cumin and cook for additional 3 minutes. Add the "beef" broth to the mixture and bring to a simmer, then add the chocolate chips and melt reducing until thick. Add the mixture to a food processor with the black eyed peas and process until it is a thick paste move mixture and add to a large bowl and stir in tomato paste. 

To make the bread crumbs toast 6 large slices of the bread, tear into chunks and add to food processor with the smoked paprika and salt and pepper to taste. 

Make small burger like patties with the black eyed pea past then dip into the bread crumbs and reform the patties working the bread crumbs in. Add the patty to preheated oil in a cast iron skillet and fry each side to a golden brown. 


For the sauce 


Add the water, sugar, mint, and berries to a sauce pan. Bring up to a simmer and allow the mixture to reduce down and thicken. Remove from heat. 

We served this with quinoa cooked in vegetable broth, and some asparagus that was lightly pan seared with only salt and pepper to taste.